Next a great star (meteor or comet?) fell from heaven on the fresh water sources on earth.316It too was on fire (vv. 7, 8). The ancients sometimes used "torch"(this Greek word, lampas) to describe a meteor shooting through the sky.317It poisoned a third of the rivers and streams, and many people died from drinking the poisoned water. The National Geographic Society has listed 100 major rivers in the world ranging in length from 4,000 miles (the Amazon) to 150 miles (the Rio de la Plata).318"Wormwood"means "bitter"(cf. Deut. 29:18, et al.). It was the name of a bitter herb that was fatally poisonous to some people and was a symbol of divine punishment (Jer. 3:15; 9:15; 23:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Amos 5:7). This judgment recalls the bitter water that God gave the rebellious Israelites to drink in the wilderness, which the tree cast in turned sweet (Exod. 15:23-25), as well as the first Egyptian plague (Exod. 7:21).
